After VMRO-DPMNE Vice President Aleksandar Nikoloski warned that the opposition party is under surveillance by the Government, the Netpress news site points to police officials who are likely involved in this. Nikoloski said that there is a wealth of evidence that the SDSM led Government is abusing the police to wiretap and follow the opposition.

The secret services are following us and there will be accountability for this. We see reports about our movements published in your fake news site every day. The leadership of VMRO-DPMNE is both under physical observation and electronic surveillance, Nikoloski said in a TV debate with his opposite number in SDSM Radmila Sekerinska. SDSM grabbed power in Macedonia following a campaign of wiretapping aimed at the VMRO leadership over a number of years.

According to Netpress, the center of the physical surveillance is the BJB uniformed police bureau, with its department of covert police operations. BJB is led by Saso Tasevski, former bodyguard of SDSM party leader Zoran Zaev, and the covert bureau is led by Toni Janevic. He is the brother of Ljupco Janevic, who is now Zaev’s main bodyguard. According to Nepress, Tasevski insisted that Janevic remains as head of this bureau, even with the changes introduced to the Interior Ministry after it was placed under partial opposition control, particularly to prevent the abuse of the police in the run up to the elections. This has not worked in full, and photographs of opposition leader Mickoski and other VMRO official that indicate that he is being followed are published very often, indicating that the police is still abused in favor of the ruling party.